The Walloon government is considering the introduction of a recurrent budget for the maintenance of its road network, the minister responsible for infrastructure, Philippe Henry, told a committee of the region’s parliament on Tuesday.
He was responding to queries from several MPs from the Mouvement Réformateur (MR) supported by Les Engagés, who were concerned about the postponement of numerous projects in the south of the country.
“As at 15 December, some 300 projects under the Mobility and Infrastructure Plan for All, 2020-2026 had already been delayed and we do not see anything moving for 2023,” lamented the MR group leader in the Walloon parliament, Jean-Paul Wahl.
“We have the impression that things are stalled at every level,” the Liberal leader added. "A dynamic needs to be put in place and that’s the minister’s responsibility” even if the legislature has been marked by a series of crises, he continued.
He also faulted “the cumbersome administrative structure.”
“Today, we need to bang our fists on the table and things need to move forward. All these files that are dragging on, it’s becoming unbearable,” Wahl stressed.
“You list the postponements while forgetting to mention all the ongoing projects,” Minister Henry responded, “but we all agree on one point: the state of the road network needs to be improved.”
In this regard, “we are thinking of a recurrent budget for network maintenance, outside the investment plan,” which does not currently exist, he said.
“There is no desire to cancel or postpone works. On the contrary, we are trying to speed them up, but we can admit that we have had a complex legislature,” the minister concluded.
